“Did the defendent…uh…Ape-ray you?”

I couldn’t help but think of that scene reading Dahlia Lithwick’s most recent article today. Lithwick reports on a Nebraska state judge who is presiding over a rape trial and who granted a defense motion to bar the attorneys from saying the words “rape,” “rape kit,” “victim,” “sexual assault,” or “sexual assault kit.” The prosecution responded by seeking to have the words “sex” and “intercourse” banned, as those words seem to suggest consent in the same way as the use of the word “victim” connotes lack of consent. The judge denied the prosecution’s motion, noting that without those words, there’d be nothing left to describe the alleged rape. And the jury has been kept in the dark the whole time – they don’t know that the attorneys have been prohibited from using these words.